A Typical Nigerian Week: Tomori’s Tears, Travel Apartheid and Sokoto’s corpses

About eight months ago, when the COVID vaccine was first brought to Nigeria, a friend jokingly said to me: ‘I hope this vaccination does not become like that of Yellow fever’. I laughed and thought nothing of it until I started hearing stories of people being asked at the vaccine centre in Abuja ‘Oga, do […]

About eight months ago, when the COVID vaccine was first brought to Nigeria, a friend jokingly said to me: ‘I hope this vaccination does not become like that of Yellow fever’. I laughed and thought nothing of it until I started hearing stories of people being asked at the vaccine centre in Abuja ‘Oga, do you want the injection or just the card?’

Many people would call, the elites, the uneducated, the filthy rich business people and even the professionals, each with the same request: they want to travel without taking the vaccine and without doing the COVID test. Did I happen to know who to link them up with? The brazen way in which they sneered at my belief in the vaccine, their I-told-you-I-can get-away-with-it mocking laughter only served to worsen the pain in my gut. A relative called me from Saudi to gloat over the fact that she had managed to get her card (without vaccination) as well as pay her way at the airport without subjection to that ‘nonsense’ COVID test. This is a well-designed testing system where results are directly uploaded into the NCDC website and require that the unique barcode be scanned at different points at the airport before one is declared ‘fit to fly’. And yet, Nigerians found a way to hack and bypass this system. Nigeria is the only country in the world where you pay on arrival for a COVID test into a company’s account or in some cases, a personal account and NOT in the account of the Federal Government.

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This country will give you ulcer, wallahi.

This week began on a sad note at the National COVID-19 Summit organised by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) in Abuja. When Professor of Virology, Professor Tomori, in his speech started sobbing while lamenting that it was not COVID, Lassa or Cholera that was our main problem, I understood where his tears came from. They were coming from a place of realisation that our Country was not willing to change and a slow resignation that his best would never be enough. The speech was an admission of how Nigeria kills your spirit.

He based our problem on four pillars: “They are (1) lack of patriotism – the destroyer of our nation; (2) self-interest – the burial ground of our national interest; (3) corruption – the executor of our underdevelopment, and (4) shamelessness – the destruction of our national pride.”

According to the virologist, these pillars have become the combined endemic demolisher of the foundation of the individual’s health security over the last 60 years.

It is this lack of patriotism and self interest that will allow one to shamelessly refuse to take the vaccine in Nigeria, and yet subject yourself to organised COVID tests outside the country. Why do we find it difficult to obey our laws but obey that of other countries? The virologist believes the government has been lying to the people while the people, on their part, have also been responding with more lies. What is the actual Nigerian population of people with COVID? Are the states submitting the real numbers? What is the actual number of deaths? Are all the Nigerians with COVID vaccination cards truly immunised?

The third issue is, of course, corruption. All the funds that government and foreign donors sent to hospitals for the procurement of PPEs, vaccines and equipment meant for managing patients are not being accounted for. Nigeria has been on the forefront of collecting Millions from the EU with regards to fighting GOVID. The only requirement was that records be kept for easy tracking. You can imagine their shock when some ‘vaccinated’ Nigerians arrived the UK had no antibodies in their system. When the UK asked for a record of their names on the NCDC website, Wahala started.

These people are not stupid, fa!

How can they keep spending money on Nigeria, when Nigeria is not ready to help itself? Which leads us to Prof’s last point, our utter shamelessness. We are not only corrupt, but utterly shameless and unperturbed about it. Our flagrant disregard for laws, lack of accountability and begging culture in this digital era is what has led us to where we are now: The travel bans or ‘Travel apartheid’ as the FGN is calling it.

This refers to the action of putting Nigeria on the UK red list without any justifiable or scientific reason. And while their reason may not be based on science, as the Omicron variant has already been reported in many countries with Nigeria having some of the fewest figures, you have to understand their logic. Racism aside, why should they continue to allow the world’s most populous black nation into the country, when most of us are unimmunized? The more we continue to falsify our records, the more time for the virus to continue to mutate.  

Let me break it down in Nigerian English. Viruses are micro-organisms that are highly contagious and mutate easily from one strain to another. It is one of the reasons why, in America, where the flu is common, they have the flu shot annually. So far, those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID, even when identified with the Omicron variant, have shown only mild symptoms. What this means is that, the vaccine confers some degree of immunity. Just like a child vaccinated for measles can eventually contact measles but have mild symptoms. Also, remember that this infection is novel. We are just getting to know it. By the time we are through, it may have mutated up to 100 times! Who knows?

By Wednesday, Saudi Arabia also slammed us with their travel ban. Que Sera Sera.

And while government officials debated on the subject, jetted in and out of Dubai Expo 2020, Nigerians burned. The incident occurred at about 9am in the morning of Wednesday, around Gidan Bawa village where gunmen blocked the road and set ablaze a commercial vehicle of passengers traveling from Sabon Birni local government area to Sokoto town. The Sokoto State Police spokesperson, ASP Sanusi Abubakar, confirmed the incident, noting however that those killed were 23 and not 42.

The Turji led faction of terrorists has for some time now, occupied the entire Sokoto East senatorial district. These criminals have imposed leaders in some villages and are collecting tithes, levies and controlling those in such villages as slaves. Videos of the burnt bodies have been widely circulated and my frail heart has finally come to the conclusion that the devil is a Nigerian. Who burns people alive? Do we even burn animals alive?

Like Prof, I am deeply saddened and devastated, but unlike him, I shall weep no more.

May their souls rest in peace. And may their murderers never know peace on earth and in the hereafter.